Missed Cotacotani Lake

On the way out of the Parinacota village we saw a forked road, both leading to the main road. There was a board indicating that the road to the right was for authorized personnel only and we realized that we had used that one when going towards the village. 😜😜😜 That made it twice in half a day when we had been driving on unauthorized roads. In any case no one had stopped us and neither of us had seen the no entry sign when going towards the village.
Once back on the main road, Hristo set up the Cotacotani viewpoint on the gps and we continued on our journey. A few kms away, we saw a huge que of trucks on the road. We were not sure about the reason but presumed it to be the checkpoint for trucks on the Bolivia border with Chile. We drove past them and after driving 2-3 kms found out that the trucks had been stopped due to road repair work and the que would open on our side in about 10-15 min.
After a few minutes, the road opened and we continued further along with the trucks. We saw some views of Cotacotani lake on the left of the road but continued driving to the point marked in the gps. After a few kms we could see the lake no more and Hristo realized that the gps had not been working properly and that we had missed the lake altogether.
Just at that point, we saw a track going down to the left and back towards the lake's direction. We turned around there and started downwards on the rough gravel road.Read more